You’ve encountered a few maintenance-related issues with your equipment and decided to utilize the power of an inspection checklist. It’s a fact that the right checklists will make your company’s maintenance and safety programs stronger, but how do you know which checklist is the right one for you?
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Checklist
When choosing the right checklist, there are several important things you need to consider:
- • Are there checkboxes for every part of equipment that’s essential for productive and safe operation? Can you use the checklist for other types of equipment?
- • Does it make clear which issues can be flagged for later maintenance and which need to be addressed immediately to make the equipment operable?
- • Is it easy to fill out? Is the design simple? Is it consistent? Are checkboxes listed in a way so operators don’t waste time searching for a specific box to check? Checklists that are hard on the eyes and confusing should be avoided.
- • Would you prefer using digital checklists on mobile devices or regular checklist books?
The Quality of Inspection Checklists Varies
Some companies buy generic checklists that are not intended for inspecting the specific equipment they use. Other companies create their own checklists, but there’s a significant variance in checklist quality. Generic inspection checklists are often not taken seriously because the staff can tell when they provide insufficient information and have no value as an inspection record.
Inferior checklists are not equipment-specific or detailed, and they cannot be considered as proper safety and maintenance tools. They can’t bring benefits such as compliance, increased productivity, reduced maintenance, lower equipment downtime costs, and other benefits of thorough inspections.
Software Checklists
Using cloud-based audit/inspection software will enable you to create customized checklists and upload the audit/inspection data to the cloud while in the field. It’s important to tailor an inspection checklist to your unique needs because companies often have specific requirements for their equipment. To customize a checklist, you should pay attention to:
- Structuring it logically
- Clarifying the objective
- Making questions unbiased and simple
- Emphasizing the right questions
- Adding simple examples and tips
If your checklists don’t have the right features, you will always end up with inaccurate inspection records and risk your staff’s safety and company’s profitability.
We invite you to download our free Checklist for Inspection Checklists, explore The Checker Software, or take a look at our list of comprehensive inspection checklist books
